I did all the load work up for my ex-son-in-law's M70 Featherweight in .300 WSM. Roughly over 150 rounds of top level hunting loads before I found one he would be satisfifed with in a three week period. He's one of those very anal types and knows exactly what he wants. One little ding on a stock and it's back to the gunsmith for a refinish job. Hey, it's his choice. Who am I to argue?
Anyway, he wanted loads using 165 gr. bullets at "X" velocity and one inch or less groups if possible. I did have my work cut out out for me but what the hell, I'm getting to shoot for free.
Frankly, I like the rifle. His is a New haven gun and it shot fairly decently for an out of the box gun. He later had it glass bedded, the barrel floated and a decent trigger job done on the gun and it's a solid sub MOA gun with the load he decided to go with. I did not find the recoil to be objectionable. probably due to stock fit and a decent recoil pad more than anything else but the kick was slightly more than my 30-06 and definitely less than my .300 Win. mags.
FWIW, I also got to shoot an M70 in the somewhat heavier Classic (not the FWT) with factory loads one day at the range in in the standard weight rifle, recoil ws about like a 30-06 I had that has a steel buttplate. There, but not bad. YMMV.
The question now is would I buy one? I'm not sure. I have four rifles in .300 Win. mag. now, an extremely accurate Winchester M70 that was made for Walmart and came with a very lousy Simmons scope which I replaced. All I did was a half ass trigger job and it's been sub-MOA ever since. The others are Ruger #1's which I collect. One is a #1B and the other two are #1S models. One of the "S" models is a "Year of American Liberty" gun and I haven't shot it yet. The other two are very accurate, the "B" is sub-MOA and the "S" model is at least MOA based on the limited shooting I've done with it.
So, the need for a Featherweight in .300 WSM is rather moot. No, I don't need one. Do I want one? Well, maybe. Just a little bit anyway. The only time I use the .300' I have now is if I draw an elk tag, which I failed to do again this year.I failed on antelope again as well.That's 31 years of not drawing for antelope here in AZ. No elk and no goat. Now all I have to do is hope and pray I draw a deer tag.
Paul B.
